


To Burn A Pine Tree

by Klovar



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Weirdmageddon, Canon Divergence - Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls, Gen, Grieving, How many times can I say canon divergence, I wonder who died lololol, I'm never going to write fluff, Loss of loved one, No Fluff, Obligatory spoiler warning: SPOILER ALERT, One Shot, Someone dies, You Have Been Warned, am I? ;-;, just sad and pain and angst, no comfort, so this is sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:55:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26809981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klovar/pseuds/Klovar
Summary: A second's hesitation is all it takes. Bill snaps his fingers, and unlike in the movies, nothing huge and terrible happens, relatively speaking. The world doesn't end. The bubble doesn't pop. Half the world's population doesn't die. The only thing that happens is the sweater clad body of a child convulses, grows still, and then outright disappears.To Dipper, the world just ended.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	To Burn A Pine Tree

The world was ending. The sky runs red with blood, so do the streets. Eyes rove the area, powered by wings, and embedded in trees. Non sentient objects screech and roam with a freedom that has been denied them, while the living are stone and cloth.

"Eenie."

Hysterically, and with a touch of irony, he wonders just what's he's _doing_ , because the world is ending, and he's thinking about the fact that he'll never go to middle school. Not about the fact that he's trapped in an iron fist. Not about the fact that said fist belonged to an all powerful demon. Not about the fact aforementioned demon was going to kill either him or his sister.

No, he's thinking about the fact that he'll never go to middle school.

"Meenie."

Bill's eye is red, flashing the pine tree symbol he has learnt to associate with himself. The next symbol is going to be a shooting star. It's a symbol he has learnt to associate with Mabel. It's hard not to see what's happening, especially when the demon has grown so big, and is glowering at them so closely. Even if he looks away, the spectacle plays on in the corner of his vision.

And he knows, he _knows_ what's going to come next, and he's still thinking about never going to middle school with Mabel.

"Minee."

Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford are trapped, screaming, just as helpless as he is. The only difference is they are trapped in a cage and he's trapped in a fist. Thing is, they're both trapped by Bill.

Bill. He hates Bill. He's not stupid enough to start hating the colour yellow or triangles, but he hates the yellow triangle demon named Bill. The demon was a demon, in every sense of the word. And he hated that.

" **YOU.** "

He watches helplessly as the demon raises his free hand, eye displaying the shooting star glaringly, taunting them all. For a moment, it looks like Grunkle Ford is going to say something- his mouth opens, and he makes a hoarse noise, rattling the bars of the pyramid cage as much as he can- but whatever he is going to say, he doesn't say it in time.

It's surprisingly not horrible to watch. It's flashy and big and creative and undoubtedly Bill, but it's also soundless and over needlessly fast. One moment, Dipper Pines has a twin. The next, he has nothing.

"No!" Someone shouts, and he can't quite tell who it was who said that. "You monster-!"

"Ah ah ah," Bill tightens his fist to make up for the now empty space Mabel had occupied. Had. Dipper suddenly felt dizzy. "I gave you so many chances, Sixer, it's not my fault you didn't take them!"

Bill sounds cheerful. Bill sounds way too cheerful. He shouldn't sound cheerful. Why did he sound cheerful?

"You killed her," he says dumbly instead. The demon chortles at that, spinning in a circle vertically- his way of doubling over. It's hard to double over when you're a stiff triangle.

"Boy, you're slow today, Pine Tree! But hey, spot on, welcome to reality!" Bill pats his head in a condescending, careless manner, like a person might do to a stray dog or cat. He strangely doesn't feel offended. Just numb and distant.

"You killed her," he repeats, and that's when it sinks in. "She.. you.."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Bill dismisses, the first traces of irritation creeping into his voice. "Now, Sixer, wanna give me that equation?"

Grunkle Ford is ashen and green. "Undo it. Undo whatever you did."

"Sorry, no can do, Sixer! Not even I can fix death, but hey, you sure can prevent it!" The demon clenches his fist, drawing an involuntary cry from the boy in his grasp at the sudden pressure. It's an all too clear message. The pressure quickly fades, though, as the demon shrinks slightly to hover closer to ground level, relaxing his grip and circling the cage. "Waddya say? The equation for Pine Tree's life," Bill offers, blue flames circling his free hand in anticipation. They all know that there is no deal at all.

The bastard doesn't even sound sorry about the fact that Mabel's dead.

Sick- the demon's _sick_ in the head- and is he any better? He's still thinking about how he'll never go to middle school with Mabel, of all the things in the world. Perhaps they both are sick in the head. It doesn't matter. Mabel is still dead.

"The equation for Dipper's and my brother's life," Grunkle Ford grits out, now. Bill practically howls, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye. More accurately, he conjures a tear to his eye so he can wipe it away, and the second he does the tear disappears.

"Man, that's _rich_! You two can't stop fighting long enough to hold hands, but you'd choose his life over the rest of the world's? Oh, man..." Bill chuckles, shaking his head- and hence his whole body- mockingly, and the glowing pyramid cage falls away, crumpling on itself. An ethereal arm rises from the floor, wrapping itself tightly around Grunkle Stan and restraining him as he protests against his brother's choice. Clearly, the demon finds this hilarious, but doesn't care enough to actually refuse the proposition. To him, they are all just bargaining chips- no more, no less.

"Wait," Dipper says, before the handshake is executed. "I want to make a deal."

Bill pauses. "Oh? And what might you have that I possibly want?"

"I'll work for you, just give me back my sister," he says desperately. Bill looks amused.

"Pine Tree, you really need to keep up. I can't bring back the dead. And even if I could, I wouldn't! Why in the multiverse would I want you to work for me?" The demon waves a hand, and another ethereal hand rises to hold Grunkle Ford in place anyway. "Give me a moment, Sixer, I wanna hear this one out."

"I'm smart like Grunkle Ford," he finds himself saying, the beginnings of something like _this can't be happening_ taking hold in his mind instead as the demon shrinks more, although he remains larger than his original size. It makes for an easier conversation. "I'll work for you."

"Hate to burst your bu- wait, no, I don't hate it! In fact, it's hilarious to!" The demon cackles at his own joke, "but anyway, I don't need your smarts. I'm all knowing, and I'm physical now too, kid!"

"But you don't understand human emotions," he says evenly, and wonders just how he's _doing_ this. There's a tight knot of _Mabel Mabel Mabel_ in his chest, but the fear of the demon has turned into something deeper and darker. Different. He feels like he's participating in a school debate, rather than negotiating with a demon who could kill him at any moment and has, in fact, just killed his sist-

No. No, don't think about that.

"Yeah, I don't, big deal," Bill replies, although he seems more intrigued by the conversation now. But that's just it, Bill's simply intrigued and amused because it's something new. Nothing more. "I mean, seriously, who would sacrifice everything for their dumb sibling, huh, Sixer? Yeah, I'm talking about you!" Bill laughs again.

"Mabel would," his voice sounds hollow even to his own ears. Mabel is gone. The demon who committed the act just raises his eyebrow.

"Funny you should say that, Shooting Star said the exact same thing when I asked her that. Guess being twins really makes a difference, huh!" Bill blinks. "Anyway, yada yada, point is, I don't care," the demon sneers, faux cheer and tone dropping in an instant, "I'm here to have a party, not participate in politics and understand meatbag emotions, Pine Tree."

"Then something else, I have to have something you want, I'll give it, just bring back Mabel!" He shouts, a deep desperation blooming in his chest. It's deadly potent, a poison of his own making, and it forces his tongue to say words he wouldn't dare speak normally. Bill considers this, then shrugs cheerfully.

"Nah. I already have what I want." As if on cue, the restrains keeping Grunkle Ford in place falls away. The man looks at Dipper with a deep seated emotion he can't quite place. "Now then, back to business!"

"The equation for Dipper's and my brother's life," Ford repeats, and Bill waves a hand in acknowledgement carelessly.

"Yeah, yeah, got it, **deal**!"

He watches helplessly as the demon snatches up and shakes his grunkle's hand, screeching with wild laughter as it releases both him and Grunkle Stan abruptly, bounding into the mindscape and disappearing. Only the echo of his laughter remains, bouncing around the walls, and a stone statue of his physical form left behind, devoid of a spirit. He wonders if they- him, Mabel, Soos- had turned to stone too when they entered Grunkle Stan's mind back when Gideon had set Bill to find the password to the safe. It's slightly disorientating to think about. He concentrates on breathing evenly and looks around to ground himself.

He sees Grunkle Stan pulling off his hat, adjusting his glasses, and taking out the memory gun. He clicks and twists the button, inputting something, raising it, and aims it at his twin's slack body.

"I am so sorry," he whispers, voice hoarse, and that's when it hits home that this is Grunkle Ford, and the twins must have switched clothes. They tricked Bill. The absolute brilliance of the plan and the sheer enormity of what is about to happen hits him all at once.

"No!" He shouts as the gun fires, hitting it's target squarely. He scrambles across the room, because that's Grunkle Stan, and that's the last person who remembers this summer, and he can't _forget_ everything, he can't forget _Mabel_ , but the damage is done. The memory gun clatters to the ground, display flashing "Stanley Pines", before those words disappear and a tube bearing the same words roll out. Grunkle Ford crumbles to the ground, sobbing, silently, while Dipper picks up the tube with trembling hands, and clings to it tightly. He doesn't know what to say.

Then the magic starts.

The fearamid disintegrates, black brick by black brick. Cloth and stone return to flesh and blood; red drains from the sky and streets; abnormalities are dragged howling and screeching back where they came from. The rift between worlds press shut with a groan, draining the weirdness it had brought to this world away, restoring everything to how it was before as it does so.

It doesn't matter. The magic he wants to happen most doesn't take place- Mabel isn't reappearing, atom by atom, or suddenly running to his side. There isn't even a thread of her sweater left, or the plastic hairband she wore, or the grappling hook she treasures.

"..where am I?" Grunkle Stan speaks, and he's reminded he's not the only one who lost something, but he's also reminded that his loss is the most fatal. He watches the older pair of twins embrace, one grieving and the other lost, and is aware of his lack of his own twin, because Mabel is dead, Bill killed her, Bill _killed_ her-

He can't even blame Grunkle Stan for not speaking up faster. Grunkle Stan doesn't remember anything. Grunkle Stan continues to not remember anything- not the shack, not his job, not his family, not any of the townspeople, not his name- nothing. He frowns and looks around when he sees the photos in Mabel's scrapbook, but can't seem to connect the hollow, empty shell of a boy and the lack of his twin with the smiling pair of children displayed in the photos collected.

Dipper doesn't blame him. He barely recognises himself.

Mabel's sudden disappearance is a raw, aching void he can't quite fill, and can't quite come to terms with. Logically, he knows the facts, but for once, he can't listen to logic. Instead, he clings to the stupid fantasy that this is just a bad nightmare created by Bill, and he was going to wake up anytime soon, and Mabel would be with him, and Mabel wasn't dead, and Mabel-

He doesn't wake up. Mabel is still gone. He boards the bus home by himself. He's wearing a blue and white striped sweater that Mabel had knit for herself, but they're the same size, and it fits just fine, so he wears it. It only serves to remind him that she's gone, but he can't bring himself to shed the meager comfort it provides, nor to part with something so uniquely Mabel. So he wears it.

Soos gives him a tight hug, crying about how they have to meet up again, and Wendy gifts him a card of farewell, and exchanges their hats as a token of promise to meet again, making him smile weakly. Grunkle Ford makes up for Grunkle Stan's lost, puzzled reactions to Dipper leaving with as much enthusiasm as he can, but it's not the same. It's not the person he's spent all summer with, and come to love, saying goodbye to him. It's a stranger. It's his twin. It's a man that looks identical to Stan but is nothing like.

He says all the wrong things.

Dipper doesn't say a word. He's tired, and he knows it shows in his eye bags. He just boards the bus, lugging both his and Mabel's luggage up, and then says goodbye to Waddles quietly. The pig oinks, trotting after him, but stops when Dipper shoos him away, and doesn't follow anymore. He's not Mabel, after all. Waddles loved- still loves- Mabel. Not Dipper. It was Mabel who fed and played and loved Waddles, after all, not him.

The pig quietly sits besides Grunkle Stan, and doesn't make another sound.

"Goodbye," he whispers to the world outside, to the anxious faces following him. The bus pulls away, and the faces grow distant, then microscopic, and then they're gone. The bus is silent.

The loss is a sudden, pulsing wound.

Mabel would be bouncing around, singing at the top of her lungs, pointing out sights excitedly, snuggling Waddles and pestering him. Or perhaps Mabel would have fallen asleep, curled up against his side, cradling Waddles and snoring softly, or at the very least whistling when her breath blows against her braces. But it doesn't matter, because she's not here and neither of those things happen. He just sits, surrounded by luggage, surrounded by her sweater, and surrounded by lonely silence.

He needs her. He can't live without her. But he is and she isn't and it's _wrong_.

He doesn't want to go to middle school anymore. Maybe, he reflects, he should have stayed with Grunkle Ford, taken up that internship. It would be better than returning to school and having to explain what happened to his sister a million times to people he doesn't know while she wasn't by his side.

He thinks about living in a house haunted by her ghost, of living in a house full of the echoes of her voice, every day, and he thinks middle school might be better. Middle school without Mabel. Without her assurance, without her backing, without her presence..

Maybe the internship was better.

He's started crying before he even registers he is, wiping futilely at the tears rolling down his cheeks, trying not to ruin the sweater. It still smells very faintly of her- strawberry shampoo, sweet sugar, fresh grass- even after it has been washed thoroughly. If he tries hard enough, and closes his eyes, he can pretend that he's asleep and she's about to prank him awake. Or that one of them had a nightmare and they're sleeping side by side. He wonders how long the scent will hold out. He wonders how many sweaters hold this scent. He wonders how long the scent will last if he doesn't wash it. He wonders what Mabel would say about that.

Mabel. All his thoughts keep going back to Mabel. He can't help it, even if it makes him sob more harshly.

He misses Mabel so _much_. It's not quantifiable. He doesn't know how to explain it. He's what's left of the mystery twins without the twin. A mystery. This feeling is a mystery. It's loss and pain and hurt and sorrow and disbelief rolled into one huge ball but a hundred- no, a thousand- times worse, pelting him consistently and disallowing him to forget or to rest. He doesn't want to forget, anyway. His memories are all that's left of Mabel.

He hates Bill. He really, really does. Not with the kind of passing infliction of severely disliking something for something they have done, but something deeper rooted. For hurting everyone. For putting them all through so much for no reason other than fun. For tearing away both his and Grunkle Ford's other, significant half. For killing Mabel in cold blood, and laughing over it. For ripping away everything left of the summer he had loved. For enjoying their pain and suffering.

And even if he wouldn't admit it, at the core of it all, a voice whispers: he hates Bill for not killing him too.

**Author's Note:**

> Well. That was fun. I would be sorry but I'm really not- you can blame all the sad, tragic material that popped up about Gravity Falls that made me sad, because then I felt the need to write something sad, and now you're sad too. Congratulations, we're about to start a sadness train and it never ends. Welcome aboard :)  
> Anyway, I completely 100% agree with the canon ending, but I just thought, well.. what if? What if it wasn't child friendly, and there didn't need to be a happy ending? Canonically, Mabel would have died, so I just went ahead with that, and after that the fic just kind of wrote itself. I really hope you enjoyed it, and my writing justified the scene and emotions I tried to present :')
> 
> ~~..and you cried.~~


End file.
